Suda 51, Matsuno, others on board Level-5’s new title Guild01

A handful of Japanese creatives have teamed up to produce Guild01, an unusual game to be released under Level-5’s banner.

This week’s Famitsu – as reported by Andriasang – unveiled the new 3DS title, which collects together four distinct games into one package.

Each of four respected creatives will head up one game each. Laterreports give more details:

Grasshopper Manufacture head Goichi Suda will contribute a shooter called Kaiho Shojo, set one century from the present. Piloting a Kaihoki – “liberation machine” – called Kamui, players take on the role of Shoko, a schoolgirl who happens to be the president, in a bid to liberate New Japan from an invading force which has control of an energy source called Shinjuu. The 11 foot winged robot is controlled by the stylus, and the game features animation by Bones.

One-time development hopeful turned comedian Yoshiyuki Hirai offers his debut game, which lets players stand on the other side of the counter in RPG weapon shops. It’s called Rental Bukiya de Omasse, and allows you to make weapons and rent them to adventurers, choosing the right one for each customer. Poor decisions see customers killed off without returning weapons, while successful matches presumably drive business up. Players are assisted by a tool called Donai Natter which passes on useful information about customer’s quests and, um, whether the local bakery is having a sale.

Yoot Saito, probably best known for the Dreamcast experience Seaman, also has a management game. This one’s called Air Porter, and it’s about baggage handling. As the airport head, your goal is to see baggage loaded and unloaded fast enough to keep planes running on time. Loading can be chained together to form combos, and if you do well, and the airport will grow, eventually attracting the patronage of Air Force One for a top score.

Finally, ex-Square Enix staffer and Vagrant Story designer Yasumi Matsuno will offer a “dark fantasy” RPG titled Crimson Shroud, his first project since joining Level-5. The player is a “chaser”, someone who locates missing people, and the story is apparently set 1,000 years before magic became common, telling the story of how it arose in the world.